Flash Plugin - Keep it up to date and troubleshoot problems

This article is no longer maintained, so its content might be out of date.

End of Flash support: Like other browsers and Adobe, Firefox ended Flash support at the end of 2020. Please see End of support for Adobe Flash for more information.

The Adobe Flash Player browser plugin lets you view video and animated content in Firefox. This article has information about testing, installing, updating, uninstalling and troubleshooting the Adobe Flash plugin.

The Firefox Software Update feature does not update installed plugins. See the Adobe Security bulletins and advisories page for information about security and stability issues affecting Adobe Flash Player and other Adobe products.

Testing Flash

Visit Adobe's Flash Player Help page to see if the Flash plugin is installed and working properly. If it tells you that Flash is not installed, see the next section on how to install the latest Flash plugin.

Installing or updating Flash

The Flash plugin automatically updates itself by default. If Adobe's Flash Player Help page says that Flash is outdated and you don't want to wait for the automatic update, you can update Flash manually by downloading and installing the latest version from Adobe.

To check if your installation of Flash is up to date, visit Adobe's Flash Player Help page. If it says that Flash is outdated, you can update Flash by downloading and installing the latest version from Adobe.

  1. Go to Adobe's Flash Player download page and download the Flash installer.
    Caution: Adobe's download page may include a checkbox for optional software (such as Google Chrome or McAfee Security Scan) that is selected by default. If you do not clear the checkbox before downloading, that software will be installed on your computer when you open the Flash installer.
  2. When the download has finished, close Firefox. Click the Firefox menu Fx89menuButton and select Exit.Click the Firefox menu at the top of the screen and select Quit Firefox.Click the Firefox menu Fx89menuButton and select Quit.
  3. Open the Flash installer file you downloaded and follow the instructions.
Note: If you are having problems with the Flash installer from Adobe's download page, you can use this Flash Player installer link to directly download the full installer.
  1. Go to Adobe's Flash Player download page and download the Flash installer.
  2. Click the Firefox menu Fx89menuButton and select Exit.Click the Firefox menu at the top of the screen and select Quit Firefox.Click the Firefox menu Fx89menuButton and select Quit.
  3. Open the file you downloaded (i.e. install_flash_player_osx_intel.dmg).
  4. In the Finder, open the Install Adobe Flash Player.app to run the installer, then follow the installer's instructions.
  1. Go to Adobe's Flash Player download page.
  2. When prompted, save the file (i.e. install_flash_player_"version"_linux."processor".tar.gz).
  3. Click the Firefox menu Fx89menuButton and select Exit.Click the Firefox menu at the top of the screen and select Quit Firefox.Click the Firefox menu Fx89menuButton and select Quit.
  4. Open a Terminal window (in Gnome, click on the Applications menu, select Accessories, and then select Terminal.)
  5. In the Terminal window, change to the directory where you saved the file you downloaded (e.g. cd /home/user/Downloads).
  6. Extract libflashplayer.so from the file you downloaded with the command tar -zxvf install_flash_player_"version"_linux."processor".tar.gz.
  7. As the super user, copy the extracted file, libflashplayer.so, to your Firefox installation directory's plugins sub-directory. For example, if Firefox is installed in /usr/lib/mozilla, use the command sudo cp libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins and then enter your super user password when prompted.

    0a85171f1802a3b0d9f46ffb997ddc02-1260326970-447-1.png

Uninstalling Flash

For instructions on uninstalling Flash, see Adobe's help page, Uninstall Flash Player - WindowsUninstall Flash Player - Mac OS.

Note: Running Adobe's uninstaller will remove Flash from all browsers where it is not built-in, including Internet Explorer. You will be prompted to reinstall Flash when you visit a page that requires it, such as Adobe's Flash Player Help page.

Troubleshooting

Flash plugin not working

If Adobe's Flash Player Help page does not show that Flash is working even though you have installed the latest version, your Flash plugin may be disabled in the Add-ons Manager. To make sure that Flash is enabled,

  1. Click the menu button Fx89menuButton, click Add-ons and themes and select Plugins.

If Flash is disabled, click the ellipsis (3-dot) icon and select Ask to Activate in the drop-down menu.

Flash plugin not working on certain websites

Firefox can block the Flash plugin on certain websites, if using it would cause security, speed or stability problems. For more information, see The Flash plugin is blocked on some sites by default.

Flash works in Internet Explorer or Chrome but not in Firefox

There are three different types of Flash Players: an ActiveX version for Internet Explorer, a Chrome version built into the browser and a plugin version for Firefox and some other browsers. If you want Flash to work in Firefox you must install the plugin version, as explained above.

"Run Adobe Flash" prompts

The Flash plugin is set to "Ask to Activate" by default. Click on the "Run Adobe Flash" message to allow the Flash content to load (if it doesn't, reload the webpage and try again). For details, see the Why do I have to click to activate plugins? article.

Note: Starting in Firefox version 69, the option to always activate Flash has been removed. To learn more, see this compatibility document.

The Adobe Flash plugin has crashed

If you see this message instead of Flash content, see Adobe Flash plugin has crashed - Prevent it from happening again and Adobe Flash protected mode in Firefox.

Unresponsive plugin warning

Firefox will show you a warning dialog if the Flash plugin is taking longer than expected:

warning-unresponsive-plugin

See the article Warning Unresponsive plugin - What it means and how to fix it for solutions and workarounds.

Cannot view full screen Flash videos

See Flash videos won't play full screen.

Playing Flash videos makes Firefox hang

If Firefox stops responding or if the Flash plugin hangs or stops working when playing Flash videos or games, try these solutions:

Other Flash problems and solutions

  • If Flash content does not work, acts strangely, causes errors, or if you see a notice that you need to update Flash even after installing the latest Flash version, uninstall and reinstall Flash.



Based on information from Flash (mozillaZine KB)

These fine people helped write this article:

AliceWyman, Chris Ilias, philipp, Underpass, novica, Tonnes, Michael Verdi, scoobidiver, Swarnava Sengupta, Joergen, ideato, dskmori, Lan, pollti, Joni, Artist, Mark Schmidt, Angela Lazar
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